South African firm unveils V-Raven unmanned aircraft

South African defense company Paramount unveiled a new reusable drone called V-Raven at the Africa Aerospace and Defence exhibition in South Africa on Sept. 19, replacing an earlier catapult-launched design with an aircraft that takes off and lands vertically without a runway.

V-Raven grew out of Paramount’s earlier N-Raven program, a swarming drone the company first showed in 2021. That version launched from a catapult and weighed 41 kg, cruised at about 180 km/h and could fly for roughly two hours. V-Raven drops the catapult in favor of vertical takeoff and landing, which Paramount says lets forces launch and recover the aircraft from remote locations without fixed infrastructure.

“The V-Raven has been developed for the realities of the modern African battlefield,” said Sello Ntshiele of Paramount. “Vast operating areas, remote terrain, dispersed threats and the increasing use of drones mean that forces need to be able to see further and stay on station longer. V-Raven brings those capabilities together in a highly flexible, reusable unmanned system.”

The drone comes in two power configurations. The petrol-powered version can fly for up to eight hours, cover a range of up to 1,200 km and cruise at about 140 km/h, with a communications range of up to 150 km from its ground station. An electric version trades range and endurance for a smaller footprint, flying for up to two hours over a maximum range of 250 km. Both share the same airframe: a 3.6-meter wingspan, a 2.1-meter fuselage and a maximum takeoff weight of 65 kg.

Unlike a one-way loitering munition, V-Raven is built to fly a mission and land for reuse. The base ISR version carries an electro-optical sensor for day and night surveillance, with automatic target tracking and support for interchangeable electro-optical and infrared sensors. Paramount is also developing a second configuration that adds precision-guided glide munitions for strikes on selected targets; DefenceWeb reported the weapon under development is Paramount’s LongClaw glide bomb. That armed version will go through further systems integration, ground testing and flight trials before it is ready to field.

“What we are unveiling at AAD is the next stage of the V-Raven journey,” Ntshiele said. “It is a common aircraft architecture that can evolve as operational requirements develop. The immediate focus is a highly capable ISR platform, while the family architecture provides a pathway towards additional mission configurations, including light attack.”

Paramount pointed to security challenges in the Sahel and northern Mozambique as examples of the kind of terrain V-Raven is meant to cover, where forces often lack conventional airfields to operate from. AAD 2026 drew 287 companies and 33 countries to Waterkloof Air Force Base near Pretoria, South Africa’s defense minister, Angelina Motshekga, said at the show’s opening.